Celebration Saturday

Archive for the ‘Celebration Saturday’ Category

Celebrate Eighteen, Eleven, Seven, Two

Posted in Celebration Saturday, Writing, tagged family, Geno Delafose, New Year on January 4, 2014| 14 Comments »

Join the Celebration round up at Ruth Ayres’ blog Discover. Play. Build.

Eighteen, eleven, seven, two…
This week started with eighteen people, cousins, sisters, a brother, some boyfriends, all celebrating the holiday season and my father’s eightieth year. We ate, drank, laughed, and hugged.

Gibson Cousination

Eleven gathered at my mother-in-law’s table on Sunday evening, another Christmas. My brother-in-law had something sneaky up his sleeve. I opened a Confederate soldier’s hat. My husband opened Swiss chocolate, and my mother-in-law opened Jamaican rum and Irish whiskey. Scott loves researching genealogy. He gathered information about each of our families and created binders for us. What a labor of love! He discovered that one of my ancestry lines leads to Scottish royalty. The reason for the Confederate hat? He told a story of a family who lost a father and son within days of each other in the Civil War. This is the kind of gift that keeps on giving as I learn my family history.

Seven left for another meal, my daughters, one boyfriend, one husband, and one mother-in-law. We gathered left overs. I made tortilla soup. My daughter made lemon squares. Once again good food, laughter, and hugs.

Two of us for New Year’s Eve. We took a selfie before we went out in the cold rain to dance the night away to our favorite Zydeco band, Geno Delafose and the French Rockin Boogie.

I hope you enjoyed family and each other this holiday season. I am leaving you with a video of Geno. Do a little jitterbug to celebrate!

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Celebrating Family

Posted in Celebration Saturday, Gratitude, Writing, tagged Christmas, family, Hunter Gibson on December 28, 2013| 5 Comments »

Christmas changes as the children grow. This year, my oldest daughter traveled with her boyfriend to Wyoming to spend Christmas with his family. He has a 2 year-old niece, so everyone marveled over her first understanding of Christmas. Maggie sent pictures and called through facetime, so we connected. But it was not the same. Christmas Day was quieter, but still wonderful. Jeff made the obligatory pancakes, even though he had to make a run for milk and syrup. My mother’s dressing recipe turned out great, and we enjoyed the time with our two other daughters and my mother-in-law. Not to mention the delight of the dogs with their new toys and treats.

This weekend our family has grown. We are all together in Jackson to celebrate Christmas with my family. We are 18 all together. Each of my daughters has a boyfriend with her, so our five grew to 8. This is a first for us. Last night the eight of us went out to a restaurant to eat and hear my brother play. What fun! The sisters requested “Sidney Elf,” a Christmas song Hunter wrote when they were younger. We all sang along when up pops Sidney, Hi de doo!

Tonight the 18 of us will get together to celebrate my father’s 80th birthday. We are all so grateful to be together and to know my parents are happy and healthy. We have much to be grateful for and to celebrate!

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Celebrate a Holy Mess

Posted in Celebration Saturday, Spiritual Growth, Writing, tagged Bishop Jake Owensby, haiga, John Gibson, moon haiku, Pelican Anglican on December 21, 2013| 8 Comments »

Morning Light, photo by John Gibson

I temporarily forgot it was Saturday, Celebration Saturday. I was only thinking about the break. Whew! Here it is, two weeks off! I scheduled a facial this morning using a gift card my husband gave me for my birthday in August. I am Celebrating me today!

Celebrate imperfection and embrace holiness: Bishop Jake’s message touched me this morning. He always has some wonderful wisdom to offer. Today he tells us that we are not called to be perfect. We are born imperfect, and we will always be that way. This week my daughter, Martha, is home from Chicago. Celebrating her! She went to the eye doctor for the first time in probably more than 10 years. (Pass the guilt knife over.) She discovered not only that she is far-sighted like her mother, she also has a congenital defect in her optic nerve. The defect, Thank God, is harmless. Her amazing blue eyes are not perfect, but they are still lovely.

I spend a lot of time trying to be perfect. I would guess many of us do. It was refreshing to hear that I am not perfect and never will be. However, I am holy. This comes with a huge responsibility. To fully be holy, I need to accept others with open arms. I need to connect daily. I need to love fully. For more inspiration, read Pelican Anglican.

God did not make us to be perfect. He made us to be holy, to live into his image. God is love, and so love is the point of human life. And just in case you haven’t noticed, love is messy. God didn’t come to clean up the mess. He came to make it holy. To make it the holy mess he had in mind in the first place.
–Bishop Jake Owensby

Celebrating connections: I posted a full moon photo on Wednesday. My father posted one too, from his home in Mississippi. I wrote a haiku and have placed it over his photo to create a haiga. I learned about haiga from my Poetry Friday friend, Diane Mayr. She posted window haiga this week. Mine is a moon haiga.

Photo by John Gibson. Haiku by Margaret Simon, all rights reserved.

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Celebrate Service

Posted in Celebration Saturday, Solomon House, Teaching, tagged leadership group, pajamas, Solomon House on December 14, 2013| 5 Comments »

This week I am celebrating service to the community. At one of my schools I sponsor a leadership group. For the last two weeks, we collected pajamas. For each pair of pajamas donated, the teachers matched with a book. If a student or teacher participated, they were able to wear PJs to school on Thursday. We collected 105 pairs of PJs to give to Solomon House, an outreach mission of the Episcopal Church of the Epiphany.

On Friday I took a group of students to Solomon House. They helped sort food that had been donated through the Food Net Drive. They also walked (or ran) the labyrinth in the backyard.

As today we remember the 26 victims of the Sandy Hook shooting, let’s celebrate kindness. What acts of kindness will you do today? 26 Random Acts of Kindness

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Posted in Celebration Saturday, Teaching, tagged Gelli plate art, Illuminate, Lemuria, The Shadows on December 7, 2013| 6 Comments »

Celebration Saturday is here once again. Do the weeks fly by for you? I have much to be thankful for this week.

1. Last Saturday I had a book signing at Lemuria in Jackson, MS with my father. We were signing our book Illuminate. The biggest treat was to see old friends and to share the joy. We even sold one to a stranger.

Here I am with a high school friend sitting under photos of Eudora Welty and Walker Percy among other famous authors.

2. Tuesday night I rode in the Christmas parade all decked out in a vintage red dress and white wig.

My best queenly wave!

3. On Wednesday, my students went to the Shadows to rehearse for their play. Every year, the gifted students in grades 4-6 perform a play for the first graders in the parish. This program based on the history of the plantation home has been going on for 30 years. Some of my students have parents who performed in the play when they were younger. This is a great experience for my students. They all learned their lines and behaved well. We went to lunch downtown on Main Street at Victor’s cafeteria. This is an iconic place in New Iberia. They have a sign that reads “Dave Robicheaux eats here.” My students did such a good job at paying and figuring out tip that they were complimented by the cafeteria staff, so I let them have a play time in Bouligny Plaza. They played a vigorous game of hide and seek. Down by the bayou, I showed them a sculpture garden, another fun place to play and take ~~group~~ family pictures. A great day!

Girls in period costume

4. On Thursday evening, I took an art class. I learned how to use a gelli plate for printing. The instructor, Marcie Melancon, had made a mold from gelatin for me to use. You can purchase a gelli plate, but since I didn’t have one, I used the homemade one. I was very pleased with the resulting prints. The process was fun and easy. Just squirt out paint, roll it on, and print. We used a variety of found objects for printing, like toilet paper tubes, bubble wrap, leaves, string, etc. The one I liked the most was a double print rather than a mono print. So the images layered to create a beautiful mystical image. The woman figure was a magazine cut out that was laminated with packing tape.

5. On Friday, I found $50 that I had lost somewhere in my purse. I thought it was gone forever, but it surfaced miraculously when I was looking for something else.

This was a wonderful week, and I am working hard to avoid getting into a holiday frenzy. I want to continue to find blessings in every day.

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Thanku. Chalk-a-bration. Celebration

Posted in Celebration Saturday, Poetry, tagged Betsy Hubbard, chalkabration, poems about mothers, Ruth Ayres, Teaching Young Writers, thanku on November 30, 2013| 5 Comments »

Join the Chalk-a-bration over at Teaching Young Writers

This post combines three ideas/connections to three blog sites. The Thanku poem was started by the Teaching Authors who encouraged us to write thank you haiku about teachers who have influenced us. Chalk-a-bration is a monthly round up that Betsy Hubbard hosts at Teaching Young Writers. And the Celebration Saturday round up is hosted by Ruth Ayres at Discover. Play. Build.

Last Friday before we broke for a week off, my students wrote their Thanku poems in chalk. I wrote, too, and was pleased with the sticky thanku I wrote for my mom. I’m hoping she will read this and make me pancakes this morning.

I celebrate that Brooklyn’s flying and thanking me for her wings. How awesome!

Tyler celebrates the sunshine in his life, his mother. His grandma makes pancakes shaped like Mickey Mouse.

I love you, Mom, for more than just your pancakes, but your pancakes are the best!

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Celebration Saturday: Walking for a Cause

Posted in Celebration Saturday, Gratitude, Teaching, Writing, tagged gifted education, poetry, St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, student writing activity on November 23, 2013| 5 Comments »

Join in the fun of celebrating on Saturday, a blog round-up at Discover. Play. Build.

Beginning with Monday, this was a great week for poetry writing success. Using the field trip notes from last Friday, Monday’s quest was to complete and revise our poems and post them on the class kidblog. One of my newest students had success with this poem:

My dangling trumpet flower

is like a golden trumpet,

big yellow bell,

and a fluffy bridal gown.

My dangling trumpet flower

is a hummingbird’s favorite snack

with the most delicious flavor

of a big slice of cake.

And the student comment, “I like this poem very much. I like that you made it very specific and beautiful. I also like that you put similes and metaphors in your poem.” Both students are fourth graders who are just stretching out their writers’ wings.

On Wednesday, I used a new lesson I adapted from a conversation I had with Ava Haymon, Louisiana poet laureate. The structure of repetition worked well. I posted a few on my blog for Poetry Friday and got this email from their teacher, “I shared your blog with the sixth graders today. Jack and Ethan were beaming when they saw their poems. THANK YOU so much for giving them that feeling. The vice principal wants them to read the poems during the announcements next week.” Celebration, indeed!

Mayor Hilda Curry talks with our 6th grade students about their service project.

On Friday, three of my students and I led the school in a Walk for St. Jude. A teacher’s child lost her life to cancer last month, and the response to do something to honor Kamryn was amazing! Students could purchase a t-shirt, a button, and a color page of a star along with the donation for the walk. I’m not sure how much we raised in dollars yet, but we raised awareness and felt pride in giving back to St. Jude. Before the walk, the skies were dark and cloudy; however, just in time, our angel Kamryn swept the clouds away to show us the sun.

Kamryn’s best friend Amanda was interviewed by the newspaper.

The button and Kamryn’s picture on my t-shirt.

The official St. Jude Give Thanks Walk is today. You can still donate to support my walk on my page.

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Private Eyes on Jefferson Island

Posted in Celebration Saturday, Poetry, Writing, tagged field trip, ghost stories, gifted education, Jefferson Island, Joseph Jefferson, Private eye, Rip Van WInkle Gardens on November 16, 2013| 4 Comments »

Ruth Ayres is gathering Saturday Celebration posts on her blog. Click the image above to visit.

Early in October, I had an author visit my gifted classroom. Chere’ Coen wrote the book Haunted Lafayette. When she was talking to the students about ghost stories, she mentioned Jefferson Island, and the students did not know anything about a location just down the road. Rip Van Winkle Gardens located on Jefferson Island is a land of beauty while also a place of historical and geological significance. I decided to remedy their lack of knowledge by planning a field trip.

The weather in November can be iffy. On Tuesday and Wednesday of this week, we had a cold front and temperatures dipped while the wind blew hard. All that went away Friday, and the sky opened to the sun. Temperatures rose to a comfortable 75 degrees. The heavens were shining on our day.

I invited some other teachers along, so we gathered 32 area gifted kids from second through sixth grade. They watched a video and learned about the actor Joseph Jefferson for whom the island was named. They learned about the salt dome disaster of 1980 when an oil drill punctured the salt dome causing a whirlpool that closed the salt mine and caused damage to acres of land. The owner’s home fell into the lake leaving only the chimney visible today.

A huge gong hangs from an old oak tree.

Lake Peigneur with chimney

We toured the historical mansion, and took a nature walk along the trails through the lush and beautiful gardens. Even before I told them they could, the students started collecting items from nature. They couldn’t help themselves. They picked up peacock feathers, moss, flowers, bamboo sticks, pinecones, etc. I gave them ziplock bags to hold their collection.

After collecting, I gave the students a Private Eye loupe magnifying glass. The exercise went like this: Look at your chosen object through the loupe and ask the question, “What does it look like? What else? What else?” In this manner, students were able to build a metaphor poem. This exercise worked well for my youngest writers. Here are a few.

A little lagniappe (South Louisiana for something extra) occurred when the owner saw me and asked how the day was going. I introduced myself and explained how the students did not know the stories of Jefferson Island. He brought me into the gift shop and handed me a DVD and a book. When I introduced him to two of our students, he told them some of the ghost stories. What a thrill for these kids and for me! Today I celebrate the success of our field trip, the learning, observing, writing, and friendships!

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Cooler Air is easier to Breathe: Celebration Saturday

Posted in Celebration Saturday, Teaching, Writing, tagged celebration, flowers, students writing, weather on November 9, 2013| 8 Comments »

Celebration Saturday is here! I am happy Ruth Ayres started this tradition. It makes me stop every Saturday and think about the week in a positive way. Yesterday Ruth wrote:

I think too busy means I’m missing real life. Too busy means I’m swept up by the current panic or the flashy trend.

Too busy means I’m surviving.

Life should be more than survival.

Because when we are trapped in survival, it is too easy to believe we can’t do anything powerful or meaningful or worthy. It is too easy for the day to wrap around us and to feel like the only choice is to react

Life should be more than reaction.

I’m wondering if the way to step over (or maybe to step on) too busy, is to find the celebration.

Her words spoke to me because I feel I went into the panic mode last week and began the crazy mantra that I’m too busy. Her words made me stop. OK, breathe and look around you for things to celebrate.
Last night I made Tortilla Soup. That is something to celebrate, time to cook and time for soup!

The air has gotten cooler. The flowers in my front flower bed opened up to this cool air. They remind me every morning to open up to the air and see the light.

Brooklyn celebrated her 12th birthday yesterday. I brought sprinkle donuts and satsumas. She brought homemade chocolate chip cookies. We took a break from all our writing to celebrate Brooklyn. I gave her a journal. She waved it at me and said, “You gave me the gift of writing!”

Before we took the break, V. was writing at the computer. She saw the google doodle and played with the changing ink blots. She announced, “I see a cat with wings.”
I said, “You should write a poem about the cat with wings.”
She got up and threw herself on the pillows in the reading center exclaiming, “I can’t take all this writing!” Hilarious. I had to take her picture.

What are you celebrating this week? Take a moment to stop, breathe in the cooler air, and celebrate your life.

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Louisiana Book Festival and More

Posted in Celebration Saturday, Gratitude, Teaching, Writing, tagged 30 Days of Gratitude, chalkabration, Festival of Words, Louisiana Book Festival, student writing on November 2, 2013| 8 Comments »

Saturday Celebration is happening weekly at Ruth Ayres site: Discover. Play. Build.

This week was full of celebrations.
1. Chalkabration Day: Read our spooky chalketry here. We loved having Kaylie visit on this special day.

2. A winner: My 6th grader, Brooklyn, placed FIRST in the Jr. High Division of the Festival of Words Contest with her poem, “I’m Home.”

3. I received an awesome evaluation from a school board observer. Here’s a quote from her report, “You have a strong rapport with these students. There is a bond of mutual respect between you and them. The classroom climate is joyful; the students are encouraged to learn the way that works for them.” Her words brought tears to my eyes. This is who I want to be as a teacher and to have an outside observer see that in me is very rewarding.

4. The Louisiana Book Festival: As you are reading this, I am awarding 65 students for their excellence in writing. I coordinate a state writing contest, Louisiana Writes! The fruition of many hours happens in the State Museum at the opening of the Book Festival. Many proud students, teachers, and parents will be listening to readings and taking pictures of young authors holding shiny medals, an anthology, and a certificate from the governor. A wonderful celebration!

It’s time to be thankful, a month of Thanks. Today I am grateful for beautiful weather and for my friends who have helped me lead the LA Writes contest for 10 years, Connie, Sara, Joan, and Ann.